A Million Dollars
by Authenti
Summary: After a nasty Cross-Poison to the face in the middle of the Great Marsh, a trainer finds herself suddenly allowed to lean on her rival for support. It's what friends do.


"Who's there?" Amber froze and turned in the direction of the sound for what felt like the fiftieth time that evening. She heard a vague splashing noise as something attempted to flee the vicinity.

"Woopawoowoopawooper!" it called, and the trainer sighed deeply, trying to make herself cry. If she cried, maybe it would stop hurting so much. Maybe the tears would wash out whatever was making her face sting so much. It couldn't be good for her eyes.

Careful not to touch her eyes, she brushed the muddy hair out of her face with shaking hands and took another few clumsy steps through the mud in the direction that she dearly hoped led to the Quick Tram.

Something splashed loudly in the mud a long way in front of her. It sounded big. Instinctively, she reached for the Pokéball that she'd been allowed to take in with her for safety's sake, but her hand clutched at nothing. Panic gripped her and she dropped to her knees suddenly, mud rising to her waist as she began to sob uncontrollably.

She was alone, sightless, somewhere in the Great Marsh, terrified, at nightfall… and she had lost her Pokémon. Things could get worse. She wasn't going to tempt fate by saying they couldn't. Splash, splash, splash, and the thing was getting closer…

"…Whoa, whoa, whoa, is that you?" A familiar voice. She tried to fight through her panic to recognise it. "Amber! Are you okay?"

"B-Ba- h-help me? Please? I-I lost her, I lost Rexxie-"

"Hey, hey, you'll be alright…" She felt an arm being draped around her shoulders, and a hand caught her own and held it tightly. "Try to stand up. Can you see? You've got gunk on your face. Here-"

"D-don't! Don't touch it," she hissed sharply. "A-a Skorupi got me. Cross-Poison. I-I think. Don't touch it, don't…!"

Barry's voice cut through the panic again, changing the subject. Forced her to stop thinking about it. "It's okay. You'll be fine. Hang onto me. We're going to the Quick Tram. Careful, there's a deep patch there – okay, this way…"

Slowly but surely, they made their way to the platform and Amber began to feel her panic fade slightly as she felt her foot step onto solid concrete. They boarded the train and Barry left her in the seat briefly as he jabbed the button for Area 1, then returned to sit next to her. He didn't touch her again. She guessed he was probably sitting there feeling extremely awkward and hoping no one would see them together and assume anything.

"I'll go get your Feraligatr when we've got you to the Pokémon Centre, okay?" She nodded briefly, not wanting to move too much. The juddering motion of the tram was making her feel sick – it was so disorienting with her eyes closed.

The rest of the way, off the tram, through the gates, through town to the Pokémon Centre… the journey passed in a black, featureless darkness illustrated only by the sound of Barry's voice – though with the amount he was talking, she might as well use echolocation.

Nurse Joy ushered her into a side ward that they kept for human patients; Pastoria City was small and peaceful enough not to need an actual hospital most of the time, so the Pokémon Centre had been renovated accordingly.

"What happened to her? What happened, dear?" she asked both trainers at once. For the first time in years, Barry let Amber answer first.

"I-I was in the Marsh… and… this Skorupi… It a-attacked my eyes w-with something… I think… It might have been Cross-Poison…"

And then Barry cut in. "I was just out there looking for this Croagunk, and then she was there, she just fell, and I ran over, and she looked like this, and is she going to be okay? She has to be. Amber, if you're not okay after this, I'm fining you 10 million dollars!"

"Are you alright, too, sir? You look a little red. Do you have a fever?" Nurse Joy sounded concerned. Amber stifled a chuckle, after which she guessed the nurse was probably giving her a strange look.

"N-no! I-I gotta go get your Feraligatr, Amber! See ya!"

Hours later, Amber lay in the comfortable bed of the Pokémon Centre and waited. There was a radio nearby. Most of it was music and interviews with famous Pokémon professors, though she'd heard the news mention 'a young trainer brought into Pastoria City's Pokémon Centre bearing the results of a Cross-Poison attack to the face'. Personally, she didn't think that was worth a news report, but if they wanted to make a big deal out of it, it was their choice.

She heard the sound of a door being opened and closed and rushed footsteps as someone hurried over to her bed and collapsed in the chair beside her.

"I'm awake," she murmured softly, knowing that with her bandages covering her eyes it was probably hard to tell.

"Oh, right. Sorry." Barry panted, the sound of a hollow object being dropped onto the bedside table following his words. "Here's your Pokéball. I didn't want to try letting her out myself, but she should be okay. No one messed with it." There was a short pause. "…I don't think your Feraligatr likes me too much. It would be too traumatic. For her!" he added quickly.

"Barry, if you're scared of my sweet, precious Rexxie, you are a very silly person." She flashed a grin in the direction his voice was coming from.

"Shut up," he laughed. Amber heard the creak of the chair as he leaned backwards. "Hey, how are you, anyway? Are your eyes okay?"

Amber nodded and touched the bandages lightly with her right hand. "It's stopped stinging now. Nurse Joy said my right eye would make a full recovery within the week." She smiled at this as though it was the most perfect ending imaginable.

"Uh… your right eye? What about your left?"

"Don't worry about it. She said it might be blurry for a long time but it'd be okay in a few months. Maybe a year. I don't mind, really." She smiled again, wishing he could see her eyes so he would know she meant it. "And by the way… thanks. Really, thanks a lot. I was pretty freaked out. Did I get mud on you? I remember almost falling onto you, with my muddy clothes and everything…"

Barry's silence worried her. Normally he'd be making a joke. Or perhaps an excuse to leave, or maybe changing the subject to something less troubling. He was not a quiet person, and she wasn't sure if she'd ever heard him be quiet for more than thirty seconds since she'd flown to Sinnoh on her trusty Pidgeot.

"Listen… Amber."

"Yes?"

"I… want you to be more careful from now on. I know, coming from me, this is gonna sound really dumb. But…" He fell silent for a while, as if trying to explain himself in his head and failing. "But, well, you really had me going there. You looked like you were about to keel over! So don't do that again, okay?"

Immediately, the blindfolded trainer heard her friend push the chair back as he stood up to leave.

"I'll be careful if you do. First person to get themselves sick or hurt after now gets fined a million dollars, right?" She grinned at him reassuringly, making sure he understood she was going to follow his advice. "And, Barry?"

"Yeah? What?"

"Thanks for worrying."

To her surprise, he didn't dismiss her comment in his usual awkward way. "Yeah, well… it's what friends do, right? I still owed ya from the time you got me an industrial-scale box of RageCandyBars for my birthday."

"Hardly a fair trade," she laughed as she heard him open the door again. "Save me another forty-one times and we'll call it even!"

Somehow, Amber just _knew _he was grinning.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Thank you for reading. Reviews will be worshipped! I promise I'll write some fics that are _actually_ about Pokémon soon. I just needed to get this out of my head. :)


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